


Those Awkward Teen Years

by randarama



Category: Marvel 616
Genre: Awkward Crush, Childhood Friends, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-30
Updated: 2020-05-30
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:01:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24451771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/randarama/pseuds/randarama
Summary: “Good evening, Princess,” Gladiator greeted with a bow.“Good evening, Praetor Gladiator!” she replied with a wobbly curtsey.There was a pause, as Kallark tried to think of something to say. He finally settled on, “You look very pretty tonight, Your Highness.”
Relationships: Lilandra Neramani/Kallark
Kudos: 1





	Those Awkward Teen Years

Being an imperial guardsman wasn’t always the easiest job in the world. Gladiator had faced his share of difficult foes since he’d began serving the empire; he had single-handedly fought hoards of monsters from alternate dimensions, destroyed a black hole with his own bare hands, sat through at least a hundred boring council meetings, and even fought the dreaded Phoenix Force. Some days, he knew, were better than others.

Today the Emperor was throwing a party. Countless men and women – decorators, planners, chefs, cleaners, architects – scurried around the palace trying to make sure everything was perfect for the celebrations. It wasn’t a particularly big holiday, really. It was mostly ignored by the general public. It was the type of holiday that was usually limited to short exchanges with coworkers that you’ve seen around but have never felt compelled to talk to (and probably won’t again, if you were being completely honest). Nevertheless, it was an excuse for the Emperor to invite diplomats from planets that could potentially help in expanding the Shi’ar Empire.

Luckily, Gladiator had no large obligations when it came to these festivities beyond protecting the Emperor. Occasionally some politician might try (and fail) to start up a conversation, or another member of the Guard would come over to pass the time, but mostly he was expected to stand there and watch for potential threats. He was good at that, despite his youth.

Eventually, after several false alarms and more than a couple of minor accidents, night fell, and the dignitaries began arriving. People of all shapes and sizes and colours, some smiling, some looking like they would rather be at home watching reruns of _The Skrull Empire’s Next Top Model_. They descended the enormous staircase accompanied by an announcement of their names. The people’s gowns and traditional suits and (in some cases) shoulder ridges glittered elegantly under the light from the hundreds of chandeliers that had been installed earlier that day. Gladiator was lingering around the Emperor when the name of the youngest royal family member declared across the room caught his attention.

“Princess Lilandra Neramani!”

He turned to see a small girl at the top of the stairs with a tiara perched on her feathery crest, and her entire body all but buried in a voluminous new dress. Her hands were clenched together in front of her and Kallark’s sensitive eyes picked up on a slight tremble in them. But the girl was beaming with infectious excitement nonetheless, and he couldn’t help but smile a little himself.

Lilandra began her long trek down the stairs a little too fast, tripping a little over her own feet before catching herself and remembering to slow down. As she got closer to the foot of the staircase she heard the names of her siblings each being called behind her. Cal’syee and D’Ken had attended far more of these kinds of parties before and looked noticeably less enthusiastic than their younger sister. After what seemed like forever, Lilandra reached the floor and the girl was immediately swallowed by the crowd.

Gladiator turned his attention back to the Emperor and whoever he was talking to now, but saved a sliver of attention for keeping track of the youngest Neramani.

Hours passed, and the sun had long sunk behind Chandilar’s distant horizon. Luckily nothing at the party had gone awry. The visitors were surprisingly tame considering the presence of so much of the royal family, and Gladiator was almost disappointed. He had let his mind wander for a minute, passively scanning over the crowd, when he felt a light touch on his arm. Looking down, he found himself gazing into Lilandra’s shining eyes.

She almost always came to find him at some point during one of these events. Kallark guessed it was because he was somewhat of a familiar face, and one of the few people close to her own age she could talk to, save for her siblings. He was sure it wasn’t for his riveting conversational skills.

“Good evening, Princess,” Gladiator greeted with a bow.

“Good evening, Praetor Gladiator!” she replied with a wobbly curtsey.

There was a pause, as Kallark tried to think of something to say. He finally settled on, “You look very pretty tonight, Your Highness.”

Lilandra blushed and looked down as she began to fiddle with the ruffles on her dress.

“Thanks, I picked it out myself. I was worried it would be too much…” She glanced up and then looked down at the floor again quickly. “You look very handsome, I bet all the girls have been wanting to talk to you.”

Kallark blinked in surprise, and it was his turn to blush.

“Not really, princess,” he said. “Most people here don’t even notice me. If they do, they think I’m just a boring soldier.”

Lilandra gasped and looked up at him with fire burning in her eyes.

“They’re wrong! I’ve read all about you! There was that time you saved that planet of flower people from rebels, and that time you pushed the Emperor’s ship for three whole days all the way back to Chandilar when they were stranded, and- and- any girl should feel privileged to get to talk to you!” She gasped again and covered her mouth, blushing.

“If you say so, Your Highness,” Kallark said, the corners of his mouth tilting upwards despite himself.

Luckily for Lilandra, the Emperor had a moment of peace from his guests and chose now to interrupt their conversation.

“Are you distracting my Praetor, Lilandra?” her father asked, teasing. “I know you’ve been talking about him all day, but he’s got a job to do.”

“I’m not distracting him!” Lilandra crossed her arms and pouted. “We were just talking.”

“And I’m sure you’re having a very fascinating conversation. But I need him to be on high alert.” Her father at least had the decency to look a little apologetic.

“But I just got-” Lilandra interrupted herself, knowing the look on her father’s face meant his word was final. “…Fine.”

She turned back to Kallark, hoping he would say something to prolong their time together even a little. But of course, he didn’t. He was nothing if not dedicated to his job.

“See you around,” Lilandra said with a sigh. A sharp look from her father made her roll her eyes and dip into a dramatic curtsey. “I mean – farewell, Praetor Gladiator.”

“Until we meet again, Princess Lilandra,” Gladiator said as he bowed once more.

As she left, Lilandra stole a glance over her shoulder. She couldn’t help but smile when she saw that Kallark was watching her disappear into the crowd.

* * *

Lilandra sighed as she looked at herself in the mirror, examining the appearance puberty had burdened her with. Shi’ar puberty came a little later in life than for Terrans (relatively speaking, anyway), and when it finally hit, it could be so much worse. It could also last several torturous decades, all thanks to their long lifespans.

Lilandra’s gangly arm reached up to fiddle with what was left of her molting, patchy crest, making another feather drift lazily to the floor. Even all the advanced Shi’ar tech couldn’t fix what time eventually would. But if she had to go outside her room today, Lilandra decided, she would try to cover up as much of it as she could.

The girl flipped through the outfit options her closet presented her with, but none took her fancy. This had been going on for months now, and still, the computer didn’t catch on that she wanted something she couldn’t be seen in.

“Do we have to do this every day? Give me my cloak.”

“Are you certain, Your Highness?” it asked in a robotic voice. “It is summer. The weather is too hot for a cloak.”

Lilandra rolled her eyes. Of all the closets in the palace, she had to get the only one that questioned its orders.

“Yes, I’ll survive, just give it to me.”

The closet obeyed (thank Sharra and K’ythri), and Lilandra turned back to the mirror to examine her new outfit. In her head, she begrudgingly agreed that it was hot, even inside, but thankfully when she pulled the hood of the cloak up it covered her disheveled crest and shadowed the spottiness of her face. With one last glance in the mirror and another sigh, she turned to the door to leave and attend to her duties and whatever else princesses were required to do.

She walked through the hallways, head down, trying to be inconspicuous. Of course, being the only person in a cloak in the palace during summer wasn’t particularly discreet, but people respected Lilandra’s wishes and turned their heads as if they hadn’t seen her. She couldn’t see them either when she looked at the floor, which made her feel a little better. At least until she turned the corner and smacked into someone walking the other way.

Lilandra landed on the hard stone floor and the hood of her cloak fell back before she could stop it. She looked up, only to meet the eyes of the head of the Imperial Guard. Quickly she grabbed her hood and pulled it over her head, as far down around her face as she could make it. He couldn’t see her like this, all lanky and blotchy and with her crest in the middle of a d’ast molt! Lilandra felt her cheeks growing hot and wished she could just sink into the floor.

In the small field of vision she had left, a hand appeared. Still not looking at Kallark, Lilandra reluctantly took it. His large hand enveloped hers almost protectively as he pulled her up to her feet.

“I apologize, Your Highness. I should have been paying more attention to my surroundings.”

“S’fine,” she mumbled, looking at her feet.

Kallark was about to ask why she was wearing a cloak on such a warm day, but hesitated. He already knew the answer. He wouldn’t make her feel more embarrassed than she already did. Instead, he gave a quick bow and let Lilandra take her leave.

As he watched her walk away, cloak flowing gracefully behind her, Kallark found himself calling out to her.

“Your Highness?” She turned back to look at him with curious eyes. “You look very pretty today.”

A warmth spread through her, and it was a completely different feeling from the mortified blush she felt before. Lilandra couldn’t help but smile.

“Thank you, Gladiator. You look handsome today yourself.”

Kallark bowed graciously. When he lifted his head, Lilandra was already walking away, but he noticed her hood was down around her shoulders and her head was held high.

* * *

The Chandilar Academy was a hard place to live, no matter who you are. Lilandra knew she would end up there eventually – it was only a matter of time, after all – but when Deathbird murdered her mother and younger sister, it was decided for Lilandra that she would begin attending the Academy prematurely. She was shipped off without another thought from her remaining family.

The people there didn’t care that she was part of the royal family. If anything, she was treated worse for it. The teachers expected more of her, and the students thought she was unworthy of her title.

Lilandra began to spend a lot of time in the library. The place made her feel a little more at home, despite how different it was to the royal library she was used to. Books had become obsolete hundreds of years ago, but most libraries on principle had at least had a small collection almost no one even took a second glance at. The palace had a collection of ancient books that rose in shelves from the floor to the ceiling, row after row as far back as you could see. Lilandra liked to sit by the wall of books in the school library and close her eyes, taking in the smell of the musty paper. It reminded her of the place she missed and the people she loved.

Lilandra read anything she could get her hands on, whether it was for a class or for her own curiosity. Fighting techniques, history, extraterrestrial politics, languages – all of it was fair game. She had a particular fascination with books about the Imperial Guard. They were never a focus in her classes (after all, who in the Shi’ar Empire didn’t know about the Imperial Guard?) but she liked reading about them. They were familiar names and familiar stories, many of which she’d heard from the mouths of the Guardsmen themselves. She liked to laugh when the stories in the books were wrong and enjoyed the drama of it all, but secretly she had to admit that her favourite part was reading about Gladiator.

Some of the stories were unfamiliar to her, and others she remembers Kallark telling her himself. They were stories about extraordinary feats that had fueled her embarrassing girlhood infatuation. But no matter what she read, he was there. The original member of the Guard. Stable and comforting.

Over time Lilandra began to miss her home less. She became friends with a classmate named Freena, a girl whose cheerfulness and support stopped her from burying herself in a boring routine of class and studying. Some days Lilandra even found herself enjoying her time at the school.

The gawky, awkward girl began to grow up. She learned more than what she could from her books, saved the day more than once, and even gained an admirer or fifty. The school was once a place Lilandra had decided to endure, but now it was a home she knew that she would miss dearly. 

* * *

On the day of her return, the palace was buzzing with the sound of people talking about Lilandra. Most people were excited to see their Princess after so many years, although there were a number who, remembering the strange child she used to be, were more cynical.

People flitted around the landing site as they dressed it up appropriately for the arrival of royalty. Gladiator stood off to the side performing routine security checks and, as he went through the tedious motions, his thoughts began to drift. He found himself wondering just how much Lilandra had changed. Beyond the glimpses he got during her brief and infrequent visits home, it had been years since they’d truly interacted. He remembered her as headstrong and curious, and he remembered admiring her for that. Kallark hoped her time away from home hadn’t changed her too much.

As the day dragged on, Kallark could only be grateful it wasn’t a council meeting. At least gossip was marginally more entertaining than listening to people argue for three hours about the economics of some tiny planet no one cares about.

The energy in the crowd became almost tangible as Lilandra’s arrival time grew close. It was almost time.

“Everyone get to your designated place!”

Emperor D’Ken appeared in the doorway where he would greet his younger sister, looking tired and agitated and flanked by two other Guard members. Gladiator walked over to greet him.

“Your Majesty,” he bowed. “Did the meeting go well?”

D’Ken let out an unroyal sounding snort.

“It was all Tressor economics, how do you think the meeting went?” he said, then sighed. “Just go stand where you’re supposed to so we can get this over with. I haven’t gotten a break all day.”

Gladiator obeyed his Majestor as someone nearby announced that the ship would be arriving shortly. Everyone skittered to their places. Most people were packed together in a crowd and pushed far up against the outskirts of the landing pad area. Several Guardsmen were scattered for crowd control, while the others were flanking the path to the Emperor. As head of the Imperial Guard, it was Gladiator’s duty to greet the Princess as she stepped off the ship.

The crowd began to cheer as the royal starship came into view. It touched down, the door cracked open, and a ramp was lowered. There, in the ship’s doorway, stood Lilandra, and for a moment everything stopped.

Gone forever was the Princess as they had known her in her childhood. There stood a woman, proud and confident. She smiled humbly as the cheering of the crowd started again, and she began her descent down the ramp. When she reached the bottom, she greeted Kallark with a small curtsey and a genuine smile, and he was frozen.

Gladiator knew what he had to do next, but instead, his mind went blank. You could feel the crowd hold its breath. _You’re supposed to link arms with her, you idiot_ , somewhere in the back of his mind was yelling at him.

Instead, he found himself gently taking her small hand in his, and giving it the softest of kisses.

“Welcome back, Your Highness. You look beautiful.”

Lilandra giggled as a hint of a blush rose in her cheeks.

“Thank you, Kallark,” she said. She pulled her hand back and linked her arm with his. “You look especially handsome today.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is a fic I wrote like... 6 years ago. I had it posted for a bit and then deleted it because I didn't like the dynamics in it anymore. But now I've done some edits and I'm way more comfortable posting it again! To the, like, 5 fans of this pairing, I hope you like it!


End file.
